How Are the Standards Different?

New Standards for a New Generation

In April 2013, the science education community welcomed Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The voluntary standards describe important scientific ideas and practices that all students should learn by the time they leave the 12th grade. The standards integrate three important dimensions—science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts—effectively build science concepts from kindergarten through 12th grade, and integrate important concepts of engineering. The Next Generation Science Standards establish learning goals in science that will give all students the skills and knowledge they need to be informed citizens, college ready, and prepared for careers.

A group of 26 lead states, with a writing team of 41 experts in science education, developed the NGSS through a broad collaborative process that included many teachers and stakeholders in science and science education. Achieve Inc., AAAS, the National Research Council (NRC), and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) partnered to support this effort. Throughout the process, numerous drafts were produced and provided to critical stakeholders and teams for review and input, and two public comment periods were held to get additional feedback. The first public comment period was in Spring 2012 and the second in Winter 2013. Visit the official NGSS page to see the development process.

The NGSS are based on the NRC Framework for K–12 Science Education. The standards consist of performance expectations, foundation boxes, and connection boxes. (See “Inside the NGSS Box” for a breakdown of the standards’ architecture.) The performance expectations in NGSS are grouped together in two different arrangements: (1) According to topics that the writers used when writing the performance expectations and (2) according to disciplinary core ideas from the Framework. States have the option of using either arrangement when they adopt the standards, or they may choose to develop their own arrangement.

As of February 2016, 17 states and the District of Columbia (representing over 35% of the students in U.S.) have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards and are working to implement them in districts and schools. The 17 states include Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.